Waikato Centre for eLearning

Pokapū eAko o Waikato

George Siemens

The Waikato Centre for eLearning and the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research are pleased to announce that George Siemens will visit the University of Waikato on Thursday 10th December.  George is a prominent writer on the role technology has in society, particularly education, with a view that existing structures need revising to meet the challenges that an increasingly complex learning landscape brings.  He publishes and presents extensively, doing so in a spirit of openness; his book Knowing Knowledge is available as a free download, The Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning has been developed as a wiki and most of his presentations are available on SlideShare.  With others he has developed Connectivism as a possible new theory of learning, extending ideas of group and network learning.

Until recently, George was Associate Director of the Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba and has recently moved to Athabasca University in Canada to continue his research. We are fortunate that he is visiting New Zealand for a few days and has agreed to travel to the Waikato for this day.

He will run two sessions during his visit:

• 10:30am - 12 noon "Why universities must respond to the impact of technology on society and learning".  Presentation and discussion

• 2:00pm - 3:00pm "Connectivism: what is it and should it change the way we teach?"  Presentation and discussion.

These will both be thought provoking sessions and we encourage you to attend one or both of them. 

Please indicate your intention to attend via this form.

Creative Commons licensed flickr photo of George Siemens by D'Arcy Norman: http://flickr.com/photos/dnorman/3346785297/
Knowing Knowledge cover via a Creative Commons licence courtesy of George Siemens